[Significance of mitotic spindle checkpoint genes in leukemia]

Leukemia is a clonal proliferative disorder of the multipotent hematopoietic stem cells that leads to abnormal cell growth and (or) differentiation. The hallmark of the disease is the presence of oncogene expression in bone marrow or peripheral blood as a result of some chromosome translocations. The development of leukemia with transfer to disease progression presents a multistage process implicating series of molecular changes leading to chromosomal instability and aneuploidy. The most possible of these changes include the followings: appearance of additional chromosome translocations, activation of other not previously expressed oncogenes, loss of tumor suppressor genes, abnormal centrosome duplication, and dysfunction of the genes which coordinate the accurate chromosome alignment and chromosome segregation during mitosis. The two latter molecular changes which are controlled by mitotic spindle checkpoints play the role in leukemogenesis and are probably involved in apoptosis.